


Fair Fight

by theriveroflight



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Dragons, Endgame Luka Couffaine/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Enemies to Lovers, F/M, Fantasy Environmentalism, Platonic Female/Male Relationships
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-31
Updated: 2021-01-31
Packaged: 2021-03-17 08:06:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,652
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29096997
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theriveroflight/pseuds/theriveroflight
Summary: Marinette works for the Miracle Box Sanctuary, a dragon-focused animal sanctuary. She's worked there for five years, with her friend Adrien and her mentor Fu.Luka is a dragonslayer. Simple enough
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir & Plagg, Luka Couffaine/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug & Master Fu, Plagg & Tikki (Miraculous Ladybug)
Comments: 11
Kudos: 18
Collections: LBSCSprintFicChallenge





	Fair Fight

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for the LBSC Sprint Fic Challenge. I ultimately decided to pick a wildcard and write about dragons.
> 
> And ended up starting a multichapter instead. Oops?

Marinette knows better than anyone that the dragons need to be saved. They’re an endangered species just like so many others, and yet people still request  _ dragonslayers  _ like they’re in the 15th century and they’re a lord who’s serf’s farmlands are being burnt.

It just…really grinds her gears. They outlawed the use of dragons in industry decades ago — as heat sources, refrigerators, waterspouts, what have you. People still use dragons to work, though. It’s just disguised as  _ having a pet.  _ The kinds of people who own dragons are the same kinds that own tigers, or lions, without enough space to have them properly. It’s horrible treatment, and frankly Marinette hasn’t stood for it in a long time.

Luckily, she works for the Miracle Box Sanctuary, specializing in dragon care and keeping. She’s worked there for going on five years now — she started as a volunteer when she was fourteen, and now she’s majoring in Environmental Science and working there as a side job.

(The Miracle Box Sanctuary is actually part of a small chain of sanctuaries — there’s one in America, one in Tibet, and a few more that she can’t quite recall.)

She keeps track of the places on the underground of the Internet where people hire dragonslayers. The main one is DragonList, which she supposes is a parody of Craigslist?

When she goes to check it, funny — a new posting in France was just listed. Strange how things line up sometimes.

Well, who is she to say otherwise? She starts packing her bags for the trip. On average, a rescue takes about a week. She gets there in advance of everyone else because she’s better at handling the dragons than just about anyone else except for the owner, and he doesn’t get out much because he’s old.

She curses as she searches for her fireproof gear. The listing didn’t say what kind of dragon (they normally state it, but she thinks the person calling in this job is inexperienced in the bounties), so she’ll be packing for anything until she learns more.

It must be in the laundry at her apartment. That means she needs to call her roommate, Adrien.

She grabs her phone and calls Adrien. “Hey, have you seen my fireproof gear?”

“I washed it earlier,” he responds, and she sighs.

“Did you follow my instructions?”

“Yeah, hand wash only, it’s air-drying now. Hopefully it won’t take long.” Adrien sighs. “What’s the job?”

“Out near the Belgian border.”

“That’s far,” Adrien comments. “Gonna handle it solo?”

“I learned about it from a dragonslayer site,” Marinette responds. “I might need your help on the interpersonal end, convincing them to let me call the Sanctuary to take the dragon back.”

There’s a pause on the other end. “I just nodded. That was stupid.” Marinette laughs. “I’ll see you soon, then?”

“Yeah.” Marinette ends the call.

Well, it’ll be time to hit the road soon. She has to wait for her gear to dry, first, and also  _ tell Fu where she’s going.  _ The last time she left without letting her boss know, well…the call for transport didn’t exactly go well.

* * *

“Hey,” she calls softly as she walks into the office.

“What’s going on, Marinette?” Fu asks when she walks in.

“I’m going out on a mission,” she answers. “Just picked up some news off of a dragonslayer site. There’s a job posted near the Belgian border.”

“Save that dragon,” Fu says. “I give you my blessing.”

“Just wanted to let you know before I need them to be transported.” Marinette smiles.

Shoot, she also needs to let her teachers know. They’re fairly forgiving with her and her work that sometimes requires her to be out for multiple days, especially since the work is in the environmental science field. 

* * *

They end up driving off the next morning. She’s been working on getting her license, but since she lives in the city and uses public transportation to reach the Sanctuary she doesn’t normally need to drive. (Some of the other sanctuaries are a little more deserted, like the one in America that she’s been to once.)

So, Adrien’s the one driving.

“What’s the job?” he asks her, when they get bored of pretending to know the words to the songs on the radio. (Neither of them listen to pop much anymore.)

“The dragon has been described as red with black spots.” Marinette pauses and takes a look at the screenshot she has of it again. “Moderate size, but skittish, and flies away quickly.”

“Okay. You think they’ll mesh well with Plagg?”

Plagg is one of their other rescues, a fairly recent one. But he’s been closed off. Adrien’s the only person he’s come close to bonding with. Rumor has it that Plagg used to be with a red dragon. Could this be that dragon? Marinette doesn’t know.

“We won’t know until we meet them,” Marinette answers, which  _ wow,  _ she knew the answer would be noncommittal but it sounds more so than she intended. And then her phone vibrates in her hand — a notification.

Someone outbid her on the job. Shoot.

(She’s…she has an account on all the dragonslayer places, called Ladybug or some variant of it. Only a select few know that Ladybug is secretly a conservationist. She uses it to claim jobs so she won’t have competition.)

The person who outbid her goes by the username V1peri0n. Well, Marinette hopes that whoever they are won’t be too much of an obstacle to her and her goals of saving this dragon.

* * *

They reach the town where the job was put in.

“Hello, my name is Marinette Dupain-Cheng. I’m from the Miracle Box Sanctuary.” She shows her business card to the mayor. “I’ve heard that there’s a dragon around these parts?”

“It’s a menace and needs to be taken down,” the mayor responds.

“Dragons are an endangered species, sir. I could call the police now and have you arrested. It’s illegal to have them killed.”

“All the local police are on my side,” the mayor challenges. “Besides, I didn’t say  _ killed,  _ did I?”

Adrien places a hand on her shoulder. “Not to worry, sir. We’ll take this dragon out of your hands.”

“But what about the dragonslayer I hired?”

Marinette tries not to fume too much. “There’s no need to be concerned.”

“If you’re willing to take her on, then I bid you the best of it,” the mayor responds. “I just wanted to give you fair warning.”

No dragon is ever a menace. None.

“I bid you a good day then, sir,” Marinette says.

* * *

“That mayor was certainly something,” Adrien says to her when they walk out.

“Yeah. I wonder who was the slayer that went even lower, though. Dragonslayers tend to charge really high prices, because it’s an illegal operation. I charge really low, just whatever it costs to get out here and get the truck and get back.”

“Well, now I know who I outbid,” a person with blue hair says. “You’re Ladybug, I imagine?”

“And how am I supposed to say  _ your  _ codename?”

“Don’t worry about that. Just use my actual one. Luka.”

She bites her lip and looks him up and down. Everything about his purposefully disheveled appearance says that he’s never done this before. Marinette can absolutely take advantage of his incompetence.

“Here.” She hands him a business card.

“You work for a sanctuary?” This…Luka raises an eyebrow.

“Surprise!” Marinette smirks. “I’m a deceptive force. It’s more useful to use it as a newsfeed to  _ save  _ the dragons than to try and get it taken down, because then all of you dragonslayers will flee somewhere else, even harder to find.”

He looks at the business card. “Smart, Marinette.”

She huffs. “Now, if you let me handle the dragon…”

“What can you offer me?”

“Marinette,” Adrien warns. She quickly thinks for a moment. She won’t go with her original offer, she supposes. Even with the cost knocked down, the bid was still quite a bit of money — that she didn’t feel like spending on anyone’s behalf.

“You’re desperate, aren’t you? Nobody ever outbids me. Everyone charges higher for their services. So you’re either  _ foolish  _ or  _ desperate.” _

“I don’t actually like killing dragons. But I have the training to do it. I may as well put it to use with something.” Luka looks like he’s seen something horrid, and Marinette wonders just what drove him to becoming a slayer. “And I’ll work my way up to getting better paid.”

Marinette hopes that won’t become her fate. “I can offer you a job, perhaps? I’m sure the Sanctuary wouldn’t mind having an insider on dragonslayer places. I’m not particularly in on anything.”

“Everyone there knows about Ladybug. Nobody knows who she is other than that she keeps outbidding everyone.”

Marinette shrugs. “Well, if you aren’t interested…then just stay out of my way.”

“Alright then.” He puts up his hands in a gesture of surrender. “I’ll let you do the work, Mister and Missus Savior-Complex.”

After he walks out, Marinette asks a single question. She might have many more, but…

“Do I really have a savior complex?”

Adrien tilts his head. “No. I think I’m actually worse about it than you are.”

“Yeah, try not to dive in the path of ice without  _ any cold gear,”  _ she replies, lightly shoving him away.

“We’re supposed to have each other’s backs, yeah? Besides, I was the one who ended up getting him so…it turned out alright, yeah?”

Marinette nods. “Yeah.”

* * *

It’s come time to find the dragon. Marinette puts on her fireproof gear, because that’s really what’s most likely here.

Especially if this really is Plagg’s companion. Plagg breathes ice, so it makes sense that his companion would breathe fire.

She ties her hair up in a ponytail. “You ready, Adrien?” she asks.

“Born ready,” he responds, and they walk out of their room to go find their dragon.

**Author's Note:**

> Stay tuned! And follow me on Tumblr @beunforgotten for fun little writing things I do and other fics.


End file.
